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No shockers in Grand-Am/ALMS class announcements

Classes for the combined ALMS/Grand-Am Series were announced at a press conference in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Jan. 4. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Big surprises? Nope, weren't any in the announcement Friday at Daytona International Speedway of what classes the combined Grand-Am/ALMS would run when the series becomes one at the Rolex 24, 2014.

The only real decision to be made was whether to slow down the Daytona Prototype cars to run with the spec ALMS LMPC class, or speed them up to run with ALMS's P2 class. The two sanctioning bodies went with speeding up the DP cars -- though they have more horsepower than the P2 cars, they don't have the downforce, so making those cars go faster around turns will be a goal.

Keeping the ALMS GT and the Grand-Am GT classes as they are was the right thing to do, as was adding the spec ALMS GTC Porsches to the Grand-Am GT class. LMPC remains a separate class, and there are no plans to allow any other chassis manufacturer or engine brand to join Oreca and Chevrolet.

The wild card is the new Grand-Am GX class, which will contain the diesel-powered Mazda 6, the Porsche Cayman and the Lotus Evora, with hopefully more entries coming soon. The plan is for the GX cars to dovetail into the Grand-Am GT class in 2014, but the possibility remains that they could run separately. Bottom line: Four classes, or maybe five in 2014.

Still to be decided: Spec Continental tires like Grand-Am has now, or multiple suppliers like ALMS has? If we had to guess, we'd say the ALMS GT cars would remain with multiple suppliers at a minimum, but right now, no one is talking.

As for the DeltaWing, it apparently will race with the P2 and DP cars, likely in a closed-cockpit body style, which is already under development.

It's too bad, of course, that the P1 class will be eliminated, but with the ACO rules for the class that will run at Le Mans, it just doesn't make sense here.

Expect the new combined series, and the combined classes, to be named soon, possibly at the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring in March.

On track action: It was cool and cloudy and often pretty wet at the Speedway for the first day of the Roar Before the 24 testing. Seventeen DP cars are entered, 36 GT cars, and six of the new GX cars. In the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, there are 34 GS cars entered and 21 cars in the ST class.

The fastest DP car in the first of the two practice sessions was Jamie McMurray in the Target-Ganassi BMW-Riley, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay in the Wayne Taylor Chevrolet Corvette, and Alex Gurney in the Gainsco Corvette.

In GT, fastest was Nick Tandy in the Orbit Porsche. In GX, it was Ryan Eversley in the BGB Porsche Cayman.

In the drier second session, it was A.J. Allmendinger in the Michael Shank Racing Rord-Riley – both Allmendinger and the team are defending champs. He was followed by Memo Rojas in the Telmex Ganassi BMW-Riley, and Dario Franchitti in its Ganassi sister car.

In GT, Andy Lally was fastest in the defending champion Magnus Porsche. In GX, Dr. Jim Lowe was quickest in the Napleton Porsche Cayman.

In the Continental Challenge series, the Aquilante Subaru WRX-STI was fastest in GS, and the Murillo Racing BMW 328 led the ST class.